Manually Assisted Cough Technique and Incomplete Cervical Spine Injury

The previous studies show that the partial control of the muscle necessary for cough, which varies with motor level, proportionately improves the patient's ability to cough volitionally. Spinal cord injury also affects mucus clearance, the peak flow meter was used to assist the ability of cough and they also measure the peak cough flow (PFC).In the literature for the airway clearance, the following techniques were used, incentive spirometer, balloon, and blowing exercise, manually assisted cough technique active cycle of breathing exercise, postural drainage, autogenic drainage, positive expiratory pressure. There is increasing interest in strategies such as interval training that may provide a tolerable training load while maintaining an effective stimulus for adaptation. Manually assisted cough technique is used to enhance the cough strength, to help with mucus secretion it can be carried out in lying, side-lying, or sitting positions.it is important that clear secretion in order to maintain clear and healthy lungs, the risk of repeated chest infection and complication can be reduced which improve the quality of life. Manually assisted cough is a technique using strong arms to assist cough. This may be providing help in neuromuscular disease or spinal cord injury with weak respiratory and abdominal muscle.

Inclusion criteria

• The patient with incomplete cervical spine injury at C4, C5,
• bronchitis,
• shortness of breath having Peak cough flow (PCF) less than 50% and
• ASIA impairment scale C &D

Exclusion criteria

• The patient with upper cervical,
• thoracic, and
• lumbar spine injury,
• diagnosed with TB,
• degenerative diseases,
• surgical conditions, and
• complete spinal cord injury.